Wellington Phoenix women fly to Melbourne on Friday for the biggest match in the football club’s 19-year history, taking on Melbourne City in the A-League Women grand final at AAMI Park on Saturday evening from 6.15pm NZT.
It will be the first time any Phoenix side, men’s or women’s, has played in a grand final. The team only joined the women’s competition in the 2021-22 season, finished bottom of the table in each of the first two campaigns and had never made the finals before this year.
Their semi-final ended in chaotic celebration at Porirua Park on Sunday night. Trailing Brisbane Roar 2-1 from the away leg, the side fell behind at home before a Makala Woods double in extra time delivered a 3-2 aggregate win and the historic prize of a grand final ticket. A near record Porirua crowd of close to 6,000 was there to see it.
Now they face a very different proposition. Melbourne City finished top of the regular season table as premiers, have won four titles already and are chasing a record equalling fifth championship along with a possible treble. The Phoenix have not beaten City in any meeting since the New Zealand side joined the competition.
Head coach Bev Priestman has been the face of the transformation. She is in her first season back in football after serving a one year FIFA suspension following the drone surveillance scandal at the Paris Olympics that ended her tenure with Canada. Hired by the Phoenix board last winter, she has taken a squad that finished seventh last year and built one of the competition’s most dangerous teams.
“I think that’s been one of our bigger purposes, is that we want to put women’s professional sport, but we want to put women’s football in New Zealand on the map,” Priestman told RNZ this week. “If you feel butterflies in your stomach, you’re exactly where you want to be.”
She knows exactly what she’s up against in City. “We’ll be playing a side that likes to play football, so it’s more of a tactical battle,” Priestman said after the semi-final win. “You get to a final, it’s anyone’s game on the day. … We want to create that moment. I think today is that moment, and we’re not done yet.”
The Phoenix attack now leans heavily on American forward Makala Woods, whose extra time double knocked Brisbane out and lifted her postseason tally. Brooke Nunn, who won last year’s A-League title with Central Coast Mariners before crossing the Tasman, has been pivotal in midfield and is one of several signings who have credited Priestman with reshaping their game. “She’s really believed in me, she’s trusted me in a position I’ve never played before,” Nunn told RNZ.
Dutch arrival Emma Pijnenburg, who joined from Feyenoord in December, has spoken about how the coach has settled the dressing room. “Always the pre-game speech just gets us so hyped before the game,” Pijnenburg told the New Zealand Herald. “She always knows exactly what to say, it’s been really good. Yeah, you can tell that she knows what to get out of the players, what emotions to try and bring up within the team before the game or reviewing a game as well.” On the final itself, she said “I think nobody doubts us and what we can do this weekend.”
There is plenty to play for beyond a trophy. The Football Ferns programme has spent the last decade caught between hopeful build up and disappointing results at major tournaments, and the Phoenix women are the only professional women’s football pathway in New Zealand. A grand final win on Australian soil, against the country’s most dominant women’s club, would matter well beyond the scoreline.
Saturday will also mark the first use of Video Assistant Referee in an A-League Women grand final, a small but symbolic upgrade for a competition that has spent years catching up to its men’s equivalent.
Kickoff is 4.15pm AEST, 6.15pm New Zealand time. The match will be shown live in New Zealand on Sky Sport and streamed on Sky Sport Now, with full coverage available through the A-Leagues website. Phoenix supporters who couldn’t make the trip across the Tasman are expected to gather at fan parks in Wellington and Porirua to watch the match together.
Whatever happens at AAMI Park, the season has already changed something. A club that spent two decades as the perpetual underachievers of trans Tasman football has finally given New Zealand a team in a grand final, and Priestman has delivered it in less than a year on the job. The next 90 minutes, plus whatever extra time and VAR drama Melbourne City decide to throw in, will determine whether Saturday turns into the most important night in New Zealand club football, full stop.
Has the Phoenix women’s run captured your attention this season? Did you make it to Porirua Park for the semi-final, or are you booked in for one of the fan park screenings on Saturday? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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